Binky Mania!

Jake has long since given up on the pacifier, but his sister has picked up the habit. And every once in a while, when there are spare binkies laying around, Jake will pretend to be a baby and pop one in his mouth. Tonight however, he was up to his old tricks again and sported multiple binkies. Alex is mostly allowed to have her binkies ("bee-bee") at naptime and bedtime, but she uses her skinny little arms to reach between the slats of her crib to procure additional binkies as needed. She refers to bedtime as "ah, ah, baybee" and calls her blankets "ahbees".

She is talking quite a bit lately. Today she was wishing Ralphie a "Happy!" (birthday). She says all of our names: Mommy, Daddy, Jake ("DAY!!"), Geedah, Peepa, Danny, Mema, Papa, "Cuh" (Uncle Chris), "Guh" (Uncle Greg), "La" (Aunt Laura), and of course Ru.

She also says hi and bye, love you, thank you, yes and no, dog, up, out, gotta go ("Gaaah GO!"), please, hat, shoes, belly, and many others. She will repeat many words for you if you ask.

Alex is incredibly smart (in my humble non-biased opinion) and has amazing fine motor skills. She is strong and capable and extremely independent and strong-willed. She's a fearless dare devil and an absolute handful. She drives me completely bonkers and I love her like crazy. She is sweet and cuddly and absolutely Mommy's little girl.

Seventeen months have gone by in a flash, and they have been such a joy and a blessing. I love watching my two beautiful babies grow up together.

I wanna be just like my big brother!

Alex does everything she can to be just like her big brother Jake, including wearing his batting gloves.

Ralph in the News!

Ralph was recently interviewed by a reporter who had covered him back when he was playing high school baseball. Sort of a 'Where Are They Now' piece. Jake had a small cameo in the article, I recently photographed Ralph's headshot in our backyard. You can read the article here.

Having Starbucks with my little Movie Star

I've got some big shoes to fill!

Family Photos!

We haven't had pictures taken of our little family since before Alex was born, so when I met this very talented photographer named Zoe Berkovic recently, I thought it was a great opportunity to have some new pictures done. I am always on the other side of the camera and have hardly any pictures of myself with the kids, or all four of us together. We had our pictures taken on Sunday and already Zoe posted some of the sneak peek images on her blog. I can't wait to see the rest! :)


Ruth hated this:


Alex LOVES balloons, and since we share a birthday, I liked the symbolism of them too


Jake and I performing our signature gymnastics trick, "the Tuck and Roll"


I love that we now have pictures of Ralph and Jake playing baseball together. Jake is OBSESSED with baseball, the Yankees, and his new tee ball team. He tries to wear his tee ball uniform every single day.


I think this one of Alex is magical! The funny thing is, she threw all of the dolls and stuffed animals out of the wagon and then tried to steal the one doll's pacifier. And I'm pretty sure her constant string of drool was Photoshopped out.


My handsome little rockstar and his most prized possession, his 3/4 scale Fender Strat from Uncle Danny! Je was pretty much done being photographed at this point, so the bad-ass look is kinda genuine.


And finally, my happy Beezer girl! (Did I tell you I call her Beezers? I'm not sure why or when it happened, but Jake (aka "The Boop") and I call her that at least 50% of the time).

Kids like to play in the darndest places...

Alex crawled under the stool in our kitchen. Just the right size for her :)